I just realized what bugs me about Warlords . . .

[Shortman McLeod]

Caveat: I know nothing about the 3.5 Warlord, so please correct me if I am mistaken (which is partially why I'm posting this here. ).

Double caveat: I think we are all in agreement that the 4e Warlord may have little in common with his 3.5 counterpart anyway.


I'm having a hard time envisioning, from a purely flavor-text/story perpsective, a first-level Warlord. Seems like a contradiction in terms, somewhat. When I think "Warlord", I think of a huge, grizzled old general who has fought in numerous wars and earned his stripes, so to speak.

Now I am aware that 4e characters are "heroes from the start" and all that, but come on, people--first level is first level. What if I'm running a 1st level human character who is 21 years old? Can I make him a "Warlord"?

What's next? A 1st level "Master General"? A 1st level "Ancient Mage"? You get the idea.

What am I missing?

 

[hong]

1) There's a 3.5 warlord?

2) "Captain" or "commander" is my preferred alternative.

 

[GreatLemur]

Yeah, I think a lot of us are agreed that "Warlord" is an inappropriate name for a base class. I'd have preferred "Commander", myself.

...But, when you come down to it, I guess it doesn't really matter. Nobody calls the Druid and Cloistered Cleric in my game "Druid" or "Cloistered Cleric". They're both just god-chosen.

 

[JediSoth]

I wouldn't even like Commander...it indicates someone with a lot of experience; something first level characters just ain't!

Some of the new character titles seem a mite "wargamish" (forgive me). It's like they're trying to say "Look, you don't have to grind away to be a cool Warlord; you can start off as one!"

JediSoth

 

[WyzardWhately]

What bothers me is that, to my mind, Warlord == High Level Fighter.

 

[Wormwood]

We've had a couple of threads about this, and one rather large poll which concluded (IIRC) that while Warlord had less than 50% approval, no other name surpassed it in popularity. It remained the most popular of a dozen unpopular names.

Which sucks...because we all know that the class should be called the Warduke.

 

[mhensley]

There's plenty of 1st level warlords in real life. They're called 2nd lieutenants (or ensigns in the navy).

 

[Kunimatyu]

What's wrong with Tactician?

 

[lukelightning]

Warlord has evil/tyrannical connotations for me. Warlords are just trumped-up bandits who rule through military might

 

[Lackhand]

What's wrong with Tactician?

Nothing, as far as I'm concerned, but it's still less popular in the poll than Warlord.

Maybe there's a WotC spambot voting to make sure that particular odious title remains most popular?